The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley: More extraordinary writing about ordinary lives
So engaging it will be read in one sitting
By Helen Cullen
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe: Mastery of timing makes this investigation a page-turner
New Yorker writer’s drive to get to the truth again brings impetus to ask ‘just one more thing’
By Mia Levitin
Mr Hoo and Other Stories: No judgment in these barrister’s tales united by literary mastery
A number of the stories in John O’Donnell’s collection focus on people who run foul of the law, an area in which the author has expertise
By Éilís Ní Dhuibhne
Python’s Kiss by Louise Erdrich: Intriguing, vital and often funny
Maybe Minnesota helps make this writer great
By Lucy Sweeney Byrne
In brief: Leo XIV: An Augustinian Life in Context; The Sky Is Not Enough; The Dice Was Loaded from the Start
Reviews of works by Brian Heffernan; June O’Sullivan; and David Annand
Nonesuch by Francis Spufford: Distinctly Narnian in timbre – pure story of the richest kind
Part of the game of Nonesuch is to restore the reality of the second World War to a Narnian story of magic
By Kevin Power
Among Communists by Sinéad Morrissey: memoir captures North in pressure cooker of weirdness
Memoir expresses an attitude of observation that rhymes quietly with poetry, a revelation of a writer and her experience
By Nicholas Allen
All Them Dogs by Djamel White: Magical writing which tenderises the most hardened characters
Novel is filled with a street lyricism that mines masculinity in a manner reminiscent of Jim Carroll or Robert McLiam Wilson
By Elizabeth Mannion
The Visit by Neil Tully: Lyrical debut novel asks what happens to those left behind
A once insular Wexford community casts its gaze outwards as it prepares to welcome JFK
By Brigid O'Dea
The News from Dublin by Colm Tóibín: Stories by a writer with complete command of the craft
New short story collection ranges over territories familiar to Tóibín’s readers: Wexford, Catalonia, Argentina and the US
Fiction in translation: City Like Water; Women Without Men; X is Where I Am; You Are the Fuhrer’s Unrequited Love
A nightmarish cityscape that is identifiably Hong Kong; a classic of oppression in Iran; a celebration of queer lives; and a stark exploration of Albert Speer
By Frank Wynne
James Joyce - A Political Life by Frank Callanan: Depth and detail over a wide historical canvas
Book’s raison d’être is to magnify the effect of Charles Stewart Parnell and his downfall on Joyce for the whole of his career
By Terence Killeen
Book reviews in brief: A Better Death; Wilderness of Mirrors; The Throats of Birds
New releases cover assisted dying, race in South Africa and Ireland reimagined as a surrealist dystopia
What We Tried to Bury Grows Here by Julian Zabalbeascoa: traumatic Spanish Civil War impact captured
Everything is torn apart in this moving novel: families, lovers, decency and indeed the narrative itself
By Julian Girdham
Our Martin and All the Dead Voices: two republican takes on three decades of violence
Jim McVeigh writes the apologia for Martin McGuinness’s life, while Sinn Féin figure Danny Morrison revises and updates his memoir
Muskism: essential to understanding where we are and how we got here
A convincing case that Muskism has been possible only because our culture celebrates gross inequality and derides empathy and the common good
By Ian Hughes
Elemental by Arthur Snell: how climate change influences who holds world power
A tough read, but a valuable one. Snell presents us with some fascinating geopolitical nuances
By Sinéad Gibney
We Need to Talk about Roy by Dave Hannigan: Game effort, but Roy Keane is no Katie Taylor
Interesting observations on the Corkman’s influence on Irish rugby and tabloids
By NJ McGarrigle
As If by Isabel Waidner: the absurdity of living with your shadow self
Review: Comically intricate layers slowly reveal themselves in the fifth novel by Goldsmiths Prize-winner Isabel Waidner
By Huda Awan
The Shortest History of Ireland by James Hawes: Unorthodox, accessible, deeply impressive
The author’s narrative choices will not be to the taste of some readers but he has packed a pleasing amount of knowledge and understanding into his concise work
By Neil Hegarty
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